The Too Unreliable Narrator (was: What really happened on the tower)

[Neri]

No: HPFGUIDX 155749

> > Neri:
> <snip>
>  But I pointed out that until now JKR had never used a
> > non-description to spring a surprise on Harry and us, and for a good
> > reason, I believe.
> 
> Pippin:
> Not true, I'm afraid. The narrator leaves Harry's point of view and
follows
> Hermione as she bumps into Quirrell and attacks Snape, precisely so as
> to avoid telling us what Harry must know: when his broom stopped 
> bucking.
> 

Neri:
I'm not sure what you mean. The critical plot fact here is when
Harry's broom stops bucking *in relation* to the events of Quirrell
knocked off his seat and Snape catching fire. Are you saying that
Harry, who was busy hanging for his life by one hand high above the
stands, could notice Quirrell or Snape? 

The principle of the non-description is that the hero is not allowed
to have the advantage on us of knowing critical things that narrator
doesn't tell us. The narrator isn't obliged to describe everything the
hero knows (she can't do it anyway for technical reasons) but she is
obliged to describe everything the hero knows *that is of importance*.
And of course, she isn't obliged to tell us anything the hero doesn't
know, although she sometimes does out of kindness of her heart <g>. 

So leaving Harry's PoV in this incident wasn't being unreliable. On
the contrary – it allowed us to see many things that we couldn't have
seen by staying with Harry's PoV all the time. The narrator was being
fair with us.

Neri